Metals, organics, and other solid materials may be deposited on a flexible substrate, which is then deformed into a desired configuration after the material has been deposited. For example, a metal electrode may be deposited on a flexible substrate for use in an organic light emitting device. However, such a substrate does not allow for arbitrarily-shaped devices to be formed since the flexible substrate and/or any layers deposited on the substrate may be damaged or destroyed if the substrate is deformed beyond a certain point. For example, a flexible indium tin oxide (ITO) substrate can be rolled, but can not be formed into a dome or other ellipsoidal shape without damaging the substrate or layers on the substrate. Deposition of material onto a non-planar substrate would be useful for a variety of applications, including organic light emitting and photosensitive devices and other optical applications.
Aspects of depositing thin layers of material onto a non-planar substrate by stamping have been addressed in US Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0020910 by Forrest et al. and US Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0189837 by Forrest et al., the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
In the field of circuit board assembly, components on substantially flat boards may typically joined together by, for example, surface mount technology techniques (SMT) using surface mount device (SMD) soldering, and thru-hole soldering techniques. SMT methods may employ various combinations of solder pads on the printed circuit board (PCB) and solder paste on contacts of the components, which are bonded together by heating the board and all components. In the case of thru-hole soldering, typically used for prototyping or when fixing bulkier components, leads of the components are inserted into plated through-holes (PTH) drilled in the PCB and soldered to pads on the opposite side either by manual assembly or by the use of automated insertion mount machines. However, the known SMT and thru-hole techniques have limitations in their various abilities to, for example, effectively bond components without damaging heat-sensitive materials (such as in the case of SMD soldering), or rapidly assemble and bond components to small and/or irregular surfaces (such as in the case of thru-hole soldering).